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Fort Coffee Man’s Murder Trial Postponed Until July

POTEAU — LeFlore County District Judge Jon Sullivan granted a prosecution request for a trial postponement Wednesday in the case of a Fort Coffee man accused of two counts of first-degree murder with malice aforethought.

Assistant District Attorney Anthony “Tony” Evans said a cellular telephone data expert witness crucial to the state’s case would not be available through June.

Sullivan reset Simpson’s trial to begin July 8. He said if the cellphone expert could not be present then, he would set the trial for July 29.

Defense attorney Warren Gotcher reiterated his objection to the cellphone tracking data the state wants to present at trial. Gotcher previously argued that people have an expectation of privacy when they use their cellphones, including information about where their phones are in use. He argued that there has been no definitive ruling in the higher courts regarding the data.

Evans argued that although the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the cellphone usage location data, law enforcement’s use of the information has withstood Fourth Amendment/unreasonable search and seizure challenges in earlier cases.

During Simpson’s Dec. 11, 2012, preliminary hearing, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Shawn Ward testified that Flynn’s body was found in the driver’s seat of her still-running car on McGinnis Road near Spiro early April 9, 2012. She was shot in the head.

Ward testified that based on wireless telephone provider data, six calls were made to Flynn’s cellphone from 10:37 to 11:01 p.m. on April 8, and that the calls had been traced to a number assigned to a phone Simpson bought earlier in April. The calls “hit” on four cellphone towers between where Simpson was staying in Fort Smith and a location near McGinnis Road, the agent testified.

At the hearing Wednesday, Evans agreed to get information regarding any criminal “rap” sheets and any promises or agreements any Oklahoma or Arkansas investigator may have made with witnesses to Gotcher by Friday.

Simpson has been held without bond at the LeFlore County Detention Center since his June 21, 2012, arrest. The prosecution alleges Simpson killed Flynn because he was angry about her pregnancy. Simpson pleaded not guilty to the charges.